A Global Research Institute of Queen's University Belfast

ASSET2018 Summit

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Belfast Summit on Global Food Integrity

Ensuring the integrity of the world's food supply

A Queen’s University Belfast – safefood partnership event: May 2018

The Belfast Summit on Global Food Integrity 2018 will bring together representatives from international and governmental agencies, the academic and industrial research community, non-governmental organisations and the commercial & technical leaders in the food industry and its supply chain to discuss, debate and provide leadership on tackling a range of serious challenges that face the integrity of our global food supply system. The Summit will feature a number of high level strategic presentations on key issues by internationally recognised leaders. It will also place a firm emphasis on harnessing the collective knowledge and experience of the delegates to address these challenges through the formulation of policy recommendations to governments and a Summit communique.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organisations (FAO) of the United Nations, amongst a spectrum of respected commentators, the global food chain is under continued threat from an alarming increase in the number of outbreaks of animal/plant pests and diseases, and also food safety events. Such challenges are, to a degree, indicative of an erosion of the integrity of the global food chain, which in itself is a consequence of the knock-on effects of rapid human population growth and urbanisation, along with the resultant pressures on finite resources. The food security challenge is also linked to broader public policy matters such as climate change, increased pollution, environmental degradation and loss of biodiversity, as well as cultural, social, political and demographic changes. It may even be a contributory factor in many past and current conflicts. There can be no global food security without global nutritional security as this impacts on the health and wellbeing of a growing world population.

Opportunities for highlighting the proceedings of the Summit will be exploited including the technical and commercial press, social and digital media channels, the World Wide Web, and leading international scientific journals.

Further information regarding registration, speakers and summit programme to follow

Conference Themes

Theme 1

Deliberate contamination of food

Understanding the growing threat to the integrity of the global food system from food fraud and food terrorism. Formulating a call for action to build a robust global food defence system

Theme 2

The threat from pathogens to the food system

Understanding the growing complexities and risks to human health from foodborne illness and antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Formulating a call for action to build a global monitoring system for foodborne illness and AMR

Theme 3

Human exposure to chemical cocktails present in foods

Understanding the growing levels of human exposure to multiple chemicals present in foods. Formulating a call for action to build develop new ways of assessing the risks to human health from these exposures.

Theme 4

Delivering the nutritional needs for the 21st century global population

Understanding the major nutritional challenges to support improved health and wellbeing of the human population. Formulating a call for action to build a global nutritional security policy.

If you have any queries about the upcoming Belfast Summit on Global Food Integrity in May 2018 then please feel free to get in touch with the Organising Team